I don't understand that!

There was a bit of a problem with Tiscali's broadband a few weeks ago,
everything slowed down to poor dial up speeds, then it all sorted
itself out. Throughout the problem I would regularly reboot the router,
just in case.

This past week browsing has been terribly slow - ten minutes to load a
web page sometimes, but downloads, telnet, email, newsgroups etc. has
run at full speed. Click on a download, it would take ten minutes to
start - then download at full speed once started. It was so poor
browsing yesterday I decided to try remotely rebooting (via the routers
web page) my router (Netgear DG834G). The reboot instantly fixed
browsing problem and it came back on the same Tiscali IP.

The router is left powered up 24/7 and under normal conditions doesn't
get rebooted for months on end. Probably the longest period without
rebooting being over 12 months. So why should browsing be the only
problem and why should the reboot solve it with no change in IP?

I'm now thinking of plugging the router into a plug in time clock set
to turn it off once every 24 hours during the early hours, to force a
regular reboot.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

"Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> There was a bit of a problem with Tiscali's broadband a few weeks ago,
> everything slowed down to poor dial up speeds, then it all sorted itself
> out. Throughout the problem I would regularly reboot the router, just in
> case.
>
> This past week browsing has been terribly slow - ten minutes to load a web
> page sometimes, but downloads, telnet, email, newsgroups etc. has run at
> full speed. Click on a download, it would take ten minutes to start - then
> download at full speed once started. It was so poor browsing yesterday I
> decided to try remotely rebooting (via the routers web page) my router
> (Netgear DG834G). The reboot instantly fixed browsing problem and it came
> back on the same Tiscali IP.
>
> The router is left powered up 24/7 and under normal conditions doesn't get
> rebooted for months on end. Probably the longest period without rebooting
> being over 12 months. So why should browsing be the only problem and why
> should the reboot solve it with no change in IP?
>
> I'm now thinking of plugging the router into a plug in time clock set to
> turn it off once every 24 hours during the early hours, to force a regular
> reboot.

I see the same problem with a Zen account. Normally the router reports a
downstream SNR margin of 6.5 dB or above; but some evenings it drops to
about 4.0 dB. Usually that is not a problem, but on recent Saturday
evenings around 9pm I have seen the same performance drop that you describe.
It is immediately cured by rebooting the router (or even simply
disconnecting the phone cable and reconncting, which forces the ADSL to
re-negotiate), and the SNR margin returns to 6.5 dB or better.

--
Graham

Graham J formulated on Sunday :
> "Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> There was a bit of a problem with Tiscali's broadband a few weeks ago,
>> everything slowed down to poor dial up speeds, then it all sorted itself
>> out. Throughout the problem I would regularly reboot the router, just in
>> case.
>>
>> This past week browsing has been terribly slow - ten minutes to load a web
>> page sometimes, but downloads, telnet, email, newsgroups etc. has run at
>> full speed. Click on a download, it would take ten minutes to start - then
>> download at full speed once started. It was so poor browsing yesterday I
>> decided to try remotely rebooting (via the routers web page) my router
>> (Netgear DG834G). The reboot instantly fixed browsing problem and it came
>> back on the same Tiscali IP.
>>
>> The router is left powered up 24/7 and under normal conditions doesn't get
>> rebooted for months on end. Probably the longest period without rebooting
>> being over 12 months. So why should browsing be the only problem and why
>> should the reboot solve it with no change in IP?
>>
>> I'm now thinking of plugging the router into a plug in time clock set to
>> turn it off once every 24 hours during the early hours, to force a regular
>> reboot.

> I see the same problem with a Zen account. Normally the router reports a
> downstream SNR margin of 6.5 dB or above; but some evenings it drops to about
> 4.0 dB. Usually that is not a problem, but on recent Saturday evenings
> around 9pm I have seen the same performance drop that you describe. It is
> immediately cured by rebooting the router (or even simply disconnecting the
> phone cable and reconncting, which forces the ADSL to re-negotiate), and the
> SNR margin returns to 6.5 dB or better.

Yes, but the problem only affected browsing - everything else still ran
full speed.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

"Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Graham J formulated on Sunday :
> > "Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> There was a bit of a problem with Tiscali's broadband a few weeks ago,
> >> everything slowed down to poor dial up speeds, then it all sorted
itself
> >> out. Throughout the problem I would regularly reboot the router, just
in
> >> case.
> >>
> >> This past week browsing has been terribly slow - ten minutes to load a
web
> >> page sometimes, but downloads, telnet, email, newsgroups etc. has run
at
> >> full speed. Click on a download, it would take ten minutes to start -
then
> >> download at full speed once started. It was so poor browsing yesterday
I
> >> decided to try remotely rebooting (via the routers web page) my router
> >> (Netgear DG834G). The reboot instantly fixed browsing problem and it
came
> >> back on the same Tiscali IP.
> >>
> >> The router is left powered up 24/7 and under normal conditions doesn't
get
> >> rebooted for months on end. Probably the longest period without
rebooting
> >> being over 12 months. So why should browsing be the only problem and
why
> >> should the reboot solve it with no change in IP?
> >>
> >> I'm now thinking of plugging the router into a plug in time clock set
to
> >> turn it off once every 24 hours during the early hours, to force a
regular
> >> reboot.
>
> > I see the same problem with a Zen account. Normally the router reports
a
> > downstream SNR margin of 6.5 dB or above; but some evenings it drops to
about
> > 4.0 dB. Usually that is not a problem, but on recent Saturday evenings
> > around 9pm I have seen the same performance drop that you describe. It
is
> > immediately cured by rebooting the router (or even simply disconnecting
the
> > phone cable and reconncting, which forces the ADSL to re-negotiate), and
the
> > SNR margin returns to 6.5 dB or better.
>
> Yes, but the problem only affected browsing - everything else still ran
> full speed.

then it isnt the router, since it should treat all packets more or less the
same.

maybe your ISP uses web caches and there is something affecting them?

or a DNS problem, so name lookup takes a long time?
>
> --
>
> Regards,
> Harry (M1BYT) (L)
> http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
>
>
--
Regards

(E-Mail Removed) - replace xyz with ntl

stephen brought next idea :
> then it isnt the router, since it should treat all packets more or less the
> same.

That is what I thought, which was why I was so puzzled by only the
browsing being affected.

> maybe your ISP uses web caches and there is something affecting them?

Which a router reboot would not make any difference to?

> or a DNS problem, so name lookup takes a long time?

I use two - one from my ISP and one from another (BT). I don't think it
was a DNS problem, it was finding the IP quick enough - just painfully
slow to load the actual page.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk